I'm a childlike spirit betrayed by adults: Jackson

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Michael Jackson's lawyers have concluded their defence with
witnesses who depicted his teenage accuser and the boy's mother as
scam artists who concocted sexual molestation charges after Jackson
evicted them from his ranch.

The defence rested after presenting less than three weeks of
evidence, compared with 2 months for the prosecution.

Jackson did not give evidence but spoke on a lengthy videotape
in which he described himself as a childlike spirit surrounded by
adults who had deceived and betrayed him.

On Wednesday the defence's 50th and last witness, the comedian
and actor Chris Tucker, described Jackson's accuser as cunning and
relentless in his pursuit of money, gifts and trips.

Jackson's lawyers, led by Thomas Mesereau, built much of their
case during the lengthy procession of prosecution witnesses, using
aggressive cross-examination to try to undermine the credibility of
the boy, now 15, who accuses Jackson of molesting him in early
2003, and the credibility of the boy's mother.

Rather than deny that Jackson shared his bed with young boys,
the defence brought forward several young men, including the actor
Macaulay Culkin, who said they had slept in the same bed as Jackson
when they were younger, in some cases dozens of times. They all
insisted that nothing sexual had happened and that they continued
to consider Jackson a close friend.

"The defence embraced the central fact rather than ran from it,
that Michael sleeps alone in bed with boys," said James Hammer, a
former San Francisco prosecutor who is attending the trial as an
analyst for Fox News.

Mr Hammer said that while that might be a troubling image for
many jurors, it was not necessarily enough to gain a conviction on
the specific charges.

Tucker said in evidence that he befriended the boy after meeting
him at a benefit to raise money for his cancer treatment in 2001,
but later became suspicious when the boy said the event had raised
no money and asked Tucker for financial help. He gave them $US1500,
he said, and took the family to amusement parks and sports
events.

But he began to distance himself from the family after he
invited them to Las Vegas to visit the set of a movie and they
stayed for several weeks and were disruptive on the set.